Rebekah Mary Brooks (née Wade; born 27 May 1968) is an English journalist and former newspaper editor. She was chief executive officer of News International from 2009 to 2011, having previously served as the youngest editor of a British national newspaper at News of the World[6] from 2000 to 2003, and the first female editor of The Sun[7] from 2003 to 2009. Brooks married actor Ross Kemp in 2002. They divorced in 2009[5] and she married former racehorse trainer and author Charlie Brooks.

Brooks was a prominent figure in the News International phone hacking scandal, having been the editor of the News of the World when illegal phone hacking was carried out by the newspaper. Following a criminal trial in 2014 she was cleared of all charges by a jury at the Old Bailey.[8]

Brooks was born in Warrington, Lancashire (now in Cheshire), to a father variously described as a tugboat deckhand and gardener.[9] She grew up in Daresbury, to the south of Warrington,[10] and when she was 14 decided she wanted to be a journalist.[11] She attended Appleton Hall High School – a state comprehensive school that had previously been a grammar school – in Appleton, Warrington. A childhood friend, Louise Weir, described her as "more emotionally intelligent than academic", charming and always able to get what she wanted out of people.[4]

The commentator Henry Porter claims little is known of Brooks personally.[4] Tim Minogue, who was one of her first co-editors before becoming a journalist at Private Eye magazine, recalled a "likeable, skinny, hollow-eyed girl who was very ambitious".[14]

After school she worked for the French magazine L'architecture d'aujourd'hui in Paris, before returning to Britain to work for Eddy Shah's Messenger Group.[4][11] Graham Ball, the then features editor at The Post newspaper, recalled that she was a notably astute and intelligent staff member.[4] When The Post was disbanded, Brooks then moved to the News of the World.[4]

She joined the Sunday newspaper News of the World in 1989 as a secretary, before working as a feature writer for its Sunday magazine, eventually becoming the paper's deputy editor.[11] In 1994, she prepared for the News of the World '​s interview with James Hewitt, a lover of Diana, Princess of Wales, by reserving a hotel suite and hiring a team to "kit it out with secret tape devices in various flowerpots and cupboards", Piers Morgan, her former boss, wrote in his memoir The Insider, The New York Times relayed in July 2011.[15] In 1998, she transferred to the News of the World '​s daily counterpart, The Sun for a short time. She then returned to the News of the World in 2000 as editor; at the time, she was the youngest editor of a national British newspaper.[6]

While at the News of the World, Brooks oversaw its campaign of "naming and shaming" individuals suspected to be convicted child sex offenders—a campaign launched in the wake of the murder of Sarah Payne while hacking her mother's voicemail.[4][16] The paper's decision led to angry mobs terrorising those they suspected of being child sex offenders,[17] which included several cases of mistaken identity and one instance where a paediatrician had her house vandalised, apparently by people who thought her occupation meant she was a paedophile.[18][19][20] The campaign was described as "grossly irresponsible" journalism by the Chief Constable of Gloucestershire, Tony Butler,[11] but Brooks defended the paper's actions on the BBC's Breakfast with Frost, claiming that it was "only right that the public have controlled access" to information on sex offenders.[21] The paper's already strong sales held up well under her leadership, while those of rival Sunday newspapers The People and the Sunday Mirror fell more sharply.[22]

In January 2003, she returned to The Sun, replacing her former boss David Yelland, to become its first female editor.[22] On Brooks's first day as editor, the Page 3 girl was Rebekah Parmar-Teasdale – the caption to the picture was "Rebekah from Wapping".[23] Soon after becoming editor, Brooks ran the headline "Bonkers Bruno Locked Up" concerning the mental health problems of former heavyweight boxing champion Frank Bruno. The next day The Sun ran a 600-word reply from the head of the mental health charity SANE, and since then has adopted a style guide on covering mental health stories prepared by the same charity. Brooks and her husband spent a day with the head of SANE and made donations to the charity.[24][25]

Brooks has been chairman of the organisation Women in Journalism,[11] and has served as a judge for the "Guardian Student Media Awards" in November 2003[27] and the tenth annual Police Bravery Awards in July 2005, the latter sponsored by The Sun.[28]

In June 2009, it was announced that she would leave The Sun in September 2009, to become chief executive of the newspaper's parent company, News International.[7]Dominic Mohan was named her successor as editor of The Sun.[29]

A police enquiry revealed that the News of the World had a routine practice of intercepting mobile phone messages of celebrities, politicians and other public figures. The newspaper's reporter, Clive Goodman, and Glenn Mulcaire, a hired investigator, were convicted and jailed for intercepting the phone messages of members of the Royal Family in 2006.

In 2003, under questioning by the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee of the House of Commons, Chris Bryant, MP, Brooks and Andy Coulson were asked whether either of their newspapers had ever been involved in various improper acts. Brooks replied, "We have paid police for information in the past." Andy Coulson stepped in to say that payments were only made lawfully. The Sun, of which Brooks was editor, subsequently ridiculed Chris Bryant in a number of articles, starting with one about a photograph of him in his underpants from a gay dating website. Brooks later claimed that in her response to Bryant's question she had merely been speaking about the widespread belief that payments had been made to police, and denied having any knowledge of specific payments.[30]

According to MPs, Rebekah Brooks refused three times to attend the committee again to be questioned further,[31] resulting in four committee members "considering asking the Serjeant at Arms to issue a warrant forcing Brooks to attend"; however they subsequently dropped this proposal because they believed their private lives would be investigated if they did so.[31][32]John Whittingdale, chair of the committee, stated there was a conversation "about the possible repercussions of issuing a warrant for Brooks but said that did not have any bearing on his decision and he did not believe News International would target committee members."[32]

In 2011, The Guardian[34] and a solicitor alleged that in 2002, when Brooks was editor, the paper had hacked the voicemail of missing schoolgirl Milly Dowler (later found to be murdered), to access messages left by her parents. The New York Times London reporter Sarah Lyall wrote that, if the allegations were true, "it would mean either that Ms. Brooks had no idea how the paper she edited was obtaining information about the Dowler family for its articles, or that she knew about the hacking and allowed it."[34]

In July 2011, Labour Party leader Ed Miliband said Brooks should "consider her position" after the Milly Dowler allegations.[35] Prime Minister David Cameron said that if Brooks had offered her resignation to him, he would have accepted it. Milly Dowler's parents also called for Brooks's resignation.

When Brooks told News of the World staff that the newspaper was being closed down, some reportedly said that all of their jobs had been sacrificed to save hers.[36]Andreas Whittam Smith suggested that Brooks's decision not to resign was symptomatic of "the self-serving, conceited thesis that 'only I, who was at the helm during the disaster, can steer us to safety.'"[37]

Having previously had an offer of resignation rejected, Brooks resigned from News International on 15 July 2011.[39] She said, "As chief executive of the company, I feel a deep sense of responsibility for the people we have hurt and I want to reiterate how sorry I am for what we now know to have taken place. I have believed that the right and responsible action has been to lead us through the heat of the crisis. However my desire to remain on the bridge has made me a focal point of the debate. This is now detracting attention from all our honest endeavours to fix the problems of the past. Therefore I have given Rupert and James Murdoch my resignation. While it has been a subject of discussion, this time my resignation has been accepted."[40]

The Daily Telegraph reported that despite resigning from her position, Brooks remained on the company payroll and continued to receive her salary from News International, having been told by Rupert Murdoch to "travel the world on him for a year."[41]

On 17 July 2011, Brooks was arrested by police on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications and on suspicion of corruption allegations.[42][43][44] She was arrested by detectives working on Operation Weeting, the Metropolitan Police's phone hacking probe, and Operation Elveden, the probe examining illicit payments to police officers.[44] Brooks's public relations agent Dave Wilson told CNN that she did not know she was going to be arrested when she arrived for a pre-arranged interview with London's Metropolitan Police Service.[45] After 12 hours in custody, Brooks was released on bail until October 2011.[46] On 13 March 2012, Brooks was rearrested, together with her husband, on suspicion of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.[47]Ninety people have been arrested in conjunction with illegal acquisition of confidential information since police renewed investigations in 2011, many of them employees or agents of newspapers for which Brooks had responsibilities. Sixteen have been formally charged with crimes.

On 15 May 2012, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) charged Brooks and five others with conspiring to pervert the course of justice.[48] Charged along with Brooks regarding removal of documents and computers to conceal them from investigating detectives were her husband, her personal assistant, her bodyguard, her chauffeur, and the head of security at News International.[49] These charges were made about 1 year after the Metropolitan Police Service reopened its dormant investigation into phone hacking,[50] about 3 years after the then Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service told the Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee that "no additional evidence has come to light,"[51]five years after News International executives began claiming that phone hacking was the work of a single "rogue reporter",[52]10 years after The Guardian began reporting that the Met had evidence of widespread illegal acquisition of confidential information,[53] and 13 years after the Met began accumulating "boxloads" of that evidence, including information sources for News of the World journalists, but kept it unexamined in trash bags at Scotland Yard.[54]

On 31 October 2013 it was revealed she had had an affair lasting at least six years with Andy Coulson, another key figure in the phone-hacking scandal.[57]

On 24 June 2014, Rebekah Brooks was cleared of all charges related to the phone hacking.[58][59] The following edition of Private Eye magazine included a 6-page special report titled "Trial and Error" suggesting that Brooks should have been convicted.[60]

Brooks and her husband have close social ties to Prime Minister David Cameron and his wife. For example, a December 2010 dinner party was attended by Cameron and James Murdoch.[61] In 2008 she borrowed a retired police horse from the Metropolitan Police. She kept it on her Oxfordshire farm, where it was ridden by David Cameron.[62]

Shortly before her arrest, she had an hour-long telephone conversation with Tony Blair. He offered to act as an unofficial advisor to Brooks and to Rupert and James Murdoch. Blair told Brooks that this arrangement should remain private. He offered her advice on how to deal with the phone hacking scandal. Making reference to the Hutton Inquiry, which had cleared his government of wrongdoing related to the death of a biological warfare expert, Blair advised Brooks to set up an internal inquiry which would clear her of wrongdoing in the phone hacking scandal.[65]

Brooks became engaged to actor Ross Kemp (best known for portraying the volatile hardman Grant Mitchell in EastEnders) in 1996, and married him in June 2002 in Las Vegas.[42] On 3 November 2005, it was reported that Brooks had been arrested following an alleged assault on her husband. She was later released without charge and the police took no further action.[42]The Sun had been running a campaign against domestic violence at the time.[23][66] The couple had spent the previous evening in the company of the former Cabinet Minister David Blunkett, who had resigned for the second time on that day.[67] At her trial in 2013 it was revealed that Brooks and her colleague Andy Coulson had had an affair from around 1998 to around 2007,[68] during her relationship with Kemp.[69][70][71]

Private Eye and The Independent[72] reported that the couple had separated; this was not widely reported in the remainder of the British press. The 7 March 2008 issue of Private Eye refers to her "paramour", former racehorse trainer and author Charlie Brooks. The Guardian reported on 5 June 2009 that she was to marry Brooks.[73]The Independent reported that Brooks and her fiancé had married in a lakeside ceremony in June 2009.[74] The couple are key members of the Chipping Norton set, and live in Churchill, Oxfordshire, and London.[75]